US police kill another unarmed black man in New York

Police in the United States have killed a fifty-year-old unarmed black man in New York by shooting a stun gun at him after reportedly defied police orders.

Richard Gregory Davis died southwest Rochester on Sunday morning after being Tased by a police officer, the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper reported.

According to the paper, Police Chief Michael Ciminelli declined to release the victim’s name to the media but his family revealed his name.

The black man was a former Marine, father of six and grandfather of eleven.

Citing departmental protocol, Ciminelli also declined to release the name of the officer who killed the black man.

Ciminelli said Davis received medical care at the scene after being Tased and eventually was transferred to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Ciminelli said police responded to reports that a man driving a red pickup truck had crashed into a car and then a church and fled on foot.

With police at the scene, Davis allegedly returned and while defying police orders got back into his truck. He then backed up, crashing into a street sign, a fence, and then drove the truck into a house, Ciminelli added.

Davis locked himself in the cab as officers shouted at him to come out with his hands up. After five minutes, he came out charging at the police officers with fists clenched, police and witnesses said.

“I don’t know what was going on over here or what happened,” the victim’s brother, Michael Davis Sr., said. “They say he charged at the officers with his fists clenched. My brother is 300 pounds. He can barely breathe just walking. Whether he was intoxicated or whatever — I don’t understand why he was Tased.”

One of witnesses, Charles Sanders, said he had seen Davis driving wildly up and down the street in the red truck in the past several days.

“The police told him, ‘get out.’ … He got out with his hands (up). They said, ‘Get on your knees.’ He acted like he didn’t hear them. They said, ‘Get on your knees.’ He went charging at them people and that’s when they stung him,” he added.

Police did not say whether the incident was captured on video.

The United Christian Ministry of Western New York has called for body cameras for police departments.

The killing of black men by white police officers has triggered numerous protests in the United States since the August 2014 death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Police brutality and the unnecessary use of heavy-handed tactics have become a major concern across the US in recent years. US police shoot and kill an average of 1,000 people a year, 1 in 4 of whom are unarmed, according to a report by the Police Policy Studies Council.